Consumer Reports Car
Buying Guide

Do your homework before going to a dealership to haggle over a new car. Be sure to bring all of the information that will help you to get the best deal you can.  Remember that you are getting ready to deal with people who are already experts.  They are prepared with all the numbers on a high-ticket item; it is your job to be as prepared as you can be in order to keep as much of your money as possible.

Here's a list of the information that you should have in your
"Buyer's folder".

• A copy of your credit report from Truecredit.com 
• New car purchase prices for the cars that you are considering from AutoUsa.com 
• Accurate pricing data, rebates, tips and incentives from FightingChance.com 
• Credit pre-approval in writing from e-loan.com or your favorite online banking institution. 
• Insurance quote that covers what you want on your loan. 
• Used car blue book value of your trade-in from kellybluebook.com 
• Extended warranty quotes from warrantydirect.com 
• Current loan interest rates from your local newspaper or other credible source.
           
  These things will give you a huge advantage over the average buyer who walks naively into a dealership like a bug dancing on a spider web---just attracting the spiders that are called "car salesmen." (Hey, it's their job ;-) 

Another option is to go to Consumer Reports and join (I think it's somewhere in the range of $20-$40 per year, but you can get a one-month membership for only around 10 bucks) and then download their "New Car Buyer's Kit".  Personally, I haven't checked out this "Kit."

However, if you know anything at all about Consumer Reports, you know that you can trust your life to everything that they say or recommend.  I am a member--have been for years.  -ed.

I would highly recommend their kit as an addtition to this guide because you can't have too many tools in your arsenal when you're preparing for psychological warfare with car dealerships!

Remember that Consumer Reports accepts no money whatsoever from any advertiser, vendor, manufacturer, company reps, etc.  They get their money for their lab research and salaries solely from the online membership fees and magazine subscriptions. 

As a matter of fact, they were sued back in '05 for a scathing article and review that they did on Sharper Image's "Ionic Breeze" line of air purifiers.  Sharper Image dropped their suit, however, after it was found that Consumer Reports---like normal---used a neutral third party professional lab to test the Ionic Breeze line of air purifiers for their results

Contrast this with Sharper Image, who it was found to have been using a third party as well---except this "third party" tester was on Sharper Image's secret payroll!

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